Ellen J Coombs

• PhD
• University College London

Toothed whales (odontocetes) emit high-frequency underwater sounds (echolocate)—an extreme and unique innovation allowing them to sense their prey and environment. Their highly specialized mandible (lower jaw) allows high-frequency sounds to be transmitted back to the inner ear. Echolocation is evident in the earliest toothed whales, but little res...

The placental skull has evolved into myriad forms, from longirostrine whales to globular primates, and with a diverse array of appendages from antlers to tusks. This disparity has recently been studied from the perspective of the whole skull, but the skull is composed of numerous elements that have distinct developmental origins and varied function...

Within delphinoid cetaceans, snout shape is significantly correlated to diet, with long-snouted raptorial-feeding predators preying on smaller and more agile prey than shorter-snouted species. Although there have been several studies into longirostry from a functional perspective there have been no quantitative analyses of spatial variation in skul...

The Cenozoic diversification of placental mammals is the archetypal adaptive radiation. Yet, discrepancies between molecular divergence estimates and the fossil record fuel ongoing debate around the timing, tempo, and drivers of this radiation. Analysis of a three-dimensional skull dataset for living and extinct placental mammals demonstrates that...

The repeated return of tetrapods to aquatic life provides some of the best-known examples of convergent evolution. One comparison that has received relatively little focus is that of mosasaurids (a group of Late Cretaceous squamates) and archaic cetaceans (the ancestors of modern whales and dolphins), both of which show high levels of craniodental...

Extreme asymmetry of the skull is one of the most distinctive traits that characterizes toothed whales (Odontoceti, Cetacea). The origin and function of cranial asymmetry are connected to the evolution of echolocation, the ability to use high-frequency sounds to navigate the surrounding environment. Although this novel phenotype must arise through...

Extreme asymmetry of the skull is one of the most distinctive traits that characterizes toothed whales (Odontoceti, Cetacea). The origin and function of cranial asymmetry are connected to the evolution of echolocation, the ability to use high frequency sounds to navigate the surrounding environment. Although this novel phenotype must arise through...

Juvenile sea turtles can disperse thousands of kilometers from nesting beaches to oceanic development habitats, aided by ocean currents. In the North Atlantic, turtles dispersing from American beaches risk being advected out of warm nursery grounds in the North Atlantic Gyre into lethally cold northern European waters (e.g. around the UK). We used...

The evolution of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) represents one of the most extreme adaptive transitions known, from terrestrial mammals to a highly specialized aquatic radiation that includes the largest animals alive today. Many anatomical shifts in this transition involve the feeding, respiratory, and sensory structures of the cranium, which we...

1. Three-dimensional measurements of morphology are key to gaining an understanding of a species’ biology and to answering subsequent questions regarding the processes of ecology (or palaeoecology), function, and evolution. However, the collection of morphometric data is often focused on methods designed to produce data on bilaterally symmetric mor...

In just 8-12 million years, cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) underwent profound changes in adaptive zone. Their evolution from land-dwellers to aquatic inhabitants is an exemplar of macroevolutionary change. However, there has been little study of evolutionary dynamics that span their entire 50-million-year history. Using 3D geometric mo...

Background: Unlike most mammals, toothed whale (Odontoceti) skulls lack symmetry in the nasal and facial (nasofacial) region. This asymmetry is hypothesised to relate to echolocation, which may have evolved in the earliest diverging odontocetes. Early cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) such as archaeocetes, namely the protocetids and basi...

The spatial ecology of rare, migratory oceanic animals is difficult to study directly. Where incremental tissues are available, their chemical composition can provide valuable indirect observations of movement and diet. Interpreting the chemical record in incremental tissues can be highly uncertain, however, as multiple mechanisms interact to produ...

Mesoplodont beaked whales are one of the most enigmatic mammalian genera. We document a pod of four beaked whales in the Bay of Biscay breaching and tail slapping alongside a large passenger ferry. Photographs of the animals were independently reviewed by experts, and identified as True’s beaked whales ( Mesoplodon mirus ). This is the first conclu...

The spatial ecology of rare, migratory oceanic animals is difficult to study directly. Where incremental tissues are available, their chemical composition can provide valuable indirect observations of movement and diet. Interpreting the chemical record in incremental tissues can be highly uncertain, however, as multiple mechanisms interact to produ...

A study on the effects of environmental enrichment on behaviour and cognitive and motor functioning in a standard mouse model and a strain known to have behavioural deficits, suggests that environmental enrichment can positively influence natural functioning and natural behaviour

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